In my U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,532,668 and 5,670,927 I disclose universal fuseholders and cutouts with built-in safety features in which a slot having a length L and a width W for engagement by the projecting arm of a lineman""s hot stick switch enables safe and expedient fuseholder maintenance, particularly in high wind and strong conditions. In my U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,668 I provide an attachment for an adaptor which is adapted to be secured to a fuse tube with a slot for engagement of the projecting arm of a hot stick switch.
In my present invention, instead of providing a slot on the fusebody either by way of an attachment or by the cut-out switch construction itself, I have modified the hot stick switch head by providing a slot and notch on the hot stick switch head which enable easy use of the hot stick switch to safely remove fuseholders for servicing and replacement of fuseholders without injury to the alignment or line repair.
The invention is directed to a hot stick switch head for a lineman""s tool for safely and expeditiously removing and installing fuseholders having a tubular body and a mounting assembly from an overhead mounting comprising a base member having a downwardly depending attachment swivel device and an elongated slot on the opposite end thereof for receiving an element of the mounting assembly, and a fusebody-receiving notch. The invention includes a laterally projecting arm for engaging a fusebody anywhere along the length thereof and guiding said fusebody into said fusebody-receiving notch in said base member. The notch and slot are shaped and juxtapositioned so that on vertical elevation of the lineman""s tool, the fusebody is securely retained while the fusebody is lifted out of or lifted to the fusebody mounting.
Thus, the object of the invention is to provide an improved fuseholder remover system and method which is low in cost and does not require any modification or change to the fuseholder and is adaptable to a wide variety of manufactured fuseholders.